The Consolations of Cicero, Seneca and Pliny the Younger - In which we get a proper education - Letters from Abroad - 4. From Vindolanda, Greetings - In which inhabitants of a garrison town beneath Hadrian's Wall communicate with the present, and we find that even in ancient Rome it was important to plump up the cushions for visitors - 3.

The Magic of Letters - In which we learn, in a roundabout way, how not to catch a bullet in your teeth, and ponder the value of letters in an age of email - 2. Includes bibliographical references (pages 446-449) and index

He uncovers a host of engaging stories, including the tricky history of the opening greeting Along the way he delves into the great correspondences of our time, from Cicero and Petrarch to Jane Austen and Ted Hughes, and traces the very particular advice offered by bestselling letter-writing manuals. From Roman wood chips discovered near Hadrian's Wall to the wonders and terrors of email, Simon Garfield explores how we have written to each other over the centuries and what our letters reveal about our lives.

At a time when the decline of letter writing appears to be irreversible, Garfield is the perfect candidate to inspire bibliophiles to put pen to paper and create “a form of expression, emotion, and tactile delight we may clasp to our heart.'To the Letter' tells the story of our remarkable journey through the mail. He also considers the role that letters have played as a literary device from Shakespeare to the epistolary novel, all the rage in the eighteenth century and alive and well today with bestsellers like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. He provides a tender critique of early letter-writing manuals and analyzes celebrated correspondence from Erasmus to Princess Diana. In To the Letter, Garfield traces the fascinating history of letter writing from the love letter and the business letter to the chain letter and the letter of recommendation. So New York Times bestselling author Simon Garfield asks: Can anything be done to revive a practice that has dictated and tracked the progress of civilization for more than five hundred years? The recent decline in letter writing marks a cultural shift so vast that in the future historians may divide time not between BC and AD but between the eras when people wrote letters and when they did not. And while etiquette books still extol the practice, letter writing seems to be disappearing amid a flurry of e-mails, texting, and tweeting. The New York Times bestselling author of Just My Type and On the Map offers an ode to letter writing and its possible salvation in the digital age.įew things are as exciting-and potentially life-changing-as discovering an old letter.

To the letter by simon garfield